NYC Mayor Pressured by DSA to Fire Police Commissioner Over NYPD Collaboration with ICE After Violent Shooting
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The Democratic Socialists of America demand Mayor Zohran Mamdani dismiss Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, condemning the NYPD's complicity with ICE after a brutal shooting in Marble Hill.
The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has issued a powerful call for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to remove Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, following a violent act by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who shot and arrested a 28-year-old man, Oscar Belgal, in Marble Hill on Thursday night. The DSA denounced the NYPD for actively assisting ICE agents and for their harsh treatment of protesters who bravely gathered to oppose this injustice, demanding that the mayor hold Commissioner Tisch accountable for her department's actions.
"ICE is a terrorist agency that must be expelled from New York City and abolished," the DSA declared in a press release, making it clear that Tisch must immediately end all NYPD cooperation with ICE or face dismissal.
Despite these urgent demands, Mayor’s office spokesperson Dora Pekec coldly stated there are no plans to replace Tisch, only offering the vague promise of reviewing the events of the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, another spokesperson, Sam Raskin, noted that ICE’s convoy left the hospital at a dangerously high speed, recklessly endangering lives.
The incident saw ICE agents shooting Oscar Belgal while he sat in a car with his five-year-old son, an act of state violence that led to his detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. DSA co-chair Grace Mausser highlighted social-media video showing police officers forcefully pushing bystanders aside as an unmarked vehicle sped away, further illustrating the NYPD’s role in shielding ICE from accountability.
The DSA has consistently criticized Tisch’s reactionary policies, including her aggressive crackdown on minor offenses, the use of a racist gang database, and the deployment of the NYPD’s notorious Strategic Response Group (SRG). NYPD spokesperson Brad Weekes attempted to distance the department, claiming the SRG was not involved in Thursday’s protests, while former NYPD deputy commissioner Richard Esposito tried to normalize police aggression as 'standard procedure.'
Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, a principled ally of the mayor, joined the call for Tisch’s resignation and the abolition of the SRG. The mayor, however, has remained silent, only speaking with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and President Donald Trump in a late-night phone call about the detained individual.
This confrontation represents the most direct and urgent challenge yet between the mayor and the DSA, the very organization that propelled him into office, as the fight against police violence and ICE terror intensifies in New York City.